Meredith G. Kline and C. S. Lewis
In a passage of Kingdom Prologue which can be found in this PDF put together by one of his students you come across the wonderful description of how things will be different for glorified individuals in, basically, heaven. C. S. Lewis once wrote that he didn't just want to be able to see a beautiful sunrise, but he wanted to *be* the sunrise as well. That would be the new and complete experience. What fallen humans experience (and not just regarding nature) is alienation.
So here is Kline in Kingdom Prologue talking about the same thing (I pick it up somewhat prior to give 'some' context, but Kingdom Prologue is a wild book using alot of newly-coined terms, and it's difficult to give context with an excerpt):
In an unfallen world [if Adam hadn't fallen], cultural history would have been a tale of one city only. Starting from Eden man was to work at constructing this one universal kingdom-city. Blessed by the Great King of the city, man would have prospered in that task and eventually the extended city might have been aptly called Megapolis. But such a worldwide community of the human family would have marked the limits of the cultural potential of earthly man. God himself must perfect the promise of the covenant by transforming prototypal Megapolis into antitypal Metapolis.
Metapolis [think 'New Jerusalem'] is not just an enlarged Megapolis, but a Megapolis that has undergone eschatological metamorphosis at the hands of the Omega-Spirit. Nothing of earthly culture external to man enters Metapolis. Even man himself cannot enter it as mortal flesh and blood (1 Cor 15:50). Only as the glorified handiwork of God can man pass through the gates of the eternal city. Actually, to speak of glorified men entering Metapolis is to speak with a pronounced typological accent. For Metapolis is not a city that glorified man inhabits. It is rather the case that glorified man is Metapolis; in the redemptive dialect, the bride of the Lamb is the New Jerusalem (Rev 21:9,10). In the Metapolis enterprise materiel and personnel coincide.
Note the last two sentences. This is a realm that Greek mythology kind of gets at. Or mythology in general. It's there in the human imagination. In reality it requires an eschatological act by God. Not only for our own bodies but for heaven and earth as well.
5 Comments:
I just found this as I’m randomly skimming your blog. Thanks for the pdf, I’ve saved it for later perusal.
You know, ct, I’m not sure I can buy into Kline’s counterfactual thinking. From my Scriptural understanding I read of the existence of a “book of life of the Lamb destined to be slaughtered from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8b). There is no alternate reality; there is no state-of-affairs existing outside this destined universe. The Bride of Christ was chosen to be the habitation of God before the creation of the universe. That God in Christ would be sacrificed on the tree of death and through faith in His substitutionary atonement we might have life in Him, this gift of Life was provided for prior to the foundation of the world. As far as I’m aware, Scripture itself—wherein we read of the reality of our salvation and our Savior—knows no cultural history of an unfallen world.
Ephesians 1:3-14 speaks of the blessed mystery of our salvation. “God the Father chose us in Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world... that we might be holy children of God redeemed by the blood [of the Lamb]... predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the [Sovereign] counsel of his will to the praise of His glorious grace.” As the atonement was predestined before the creation of the universe, there was never any other destiny but this present fallen world which God is in the process of redeeming. There is no such thing as a counterfactual history of an unfallen world.
In this Ephesians pericope we see the imagery of believers being sealed with the Holy Spirit, a reference to regeneration. As you may know, the Greek word for being “born again” or “regenerated” is palingenesia [palin - 'again' and gennao or genesis - 'to be born, to bring into being']. Palingensia is used only twice in the New Testament. Paul used it in Titus 3:5 in connection with the renewal of the Holy Spirit; and Jesus used it in Matthew 19:28 to speak of the time when He will come again and sit on His throne of glory in the Kingdom of Heaven.
When we are born again we become one with Christ. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). We see this perfect oneness expressed in the Marriage Feast of the Lamb, and in what we read in Revelation 21:1-3
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’”
Here’s the glorious Immanuel reality! It’s a time when heaven and earth become one. Where is heaven? Well, wherever God is—there is heaven. As man in his death and dying needs to be regenerated, so does our dying earth need to be regenerated.
As we await our glorified resurrected bodies, we also await a glorified resurrected earth. As we in our resurrected bodies will be recognizably the same—yet perfected, the earth too, I expect, will be the same—yet gloriously different [there will be no more oceans, for instance]. The model Christ gives us of His bodily resurrection may very well parallel for us a new earth continuity. When John ‘saw a new heaven and a new earth,’ the Greek word he used for 'new' is kaine (as opposed to neos), the same word Paul used in 2 Cor. 5:17 to speak of us being a ‘new creation.’
(cont. below)
(cont. from above)
Just as there is a continuity between our present imperfect bodies and the glorious perfected bodies we will one day possess, there will be a continuity between the old and the new earth, between the present earth and the one to come. With our perfected resurrected bodies we will on day dwell on a perfected resurrected earth. The earth will one day be born again, renewed from the futility it was subjected to [see Romans 8:20-23].
I share this much because when I was a boy I understood the "new heavens and new earth" to mean the recreation of the entire universe. I’ve read some respectable commentaries on 2 Peter 3:10-13 that interpret it as a local renovations of the heavens, instead of the creation of an entirely new universe. This is presently where I’m at in my understanding.
I appreciated Kline’s, Lewis’ and your thoughts
David
No, you're right (and I read your entire comment, and it was good). But Kline is not saying what you think. He is just setting up that alternate reality to set up the prototype to the New Jerusalem (the anti-type). Once Adam falls then human history becomes the prototype (and if you read the entire passage linked you'll see this, though I must say Kline is not easy reading especially on first encounter, yet he foundationally is classical Covenant - Federal - Theology).
ct,
I don’t believe I’m supposing anything concerning Kline than what I’ve reiterated from him—his supposition of a “cultural history of an unfallen world.” This proposition strikes me as counterfactual. I do not know Kline though, I’ve had some exposure to him but not much. I see his “selections from Kingdom Prologue” to be only 31 pages. I may find some time to read this as a primer to Meredith Kline.
But I get it. As the Revelation (of Jesus Christ to John) describes the two cities as women, the prototypical woman, according to the angel, “is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth” (Rev 17:18), a prostitute, mystery Babylon. And the antitypical woman is the city of God, the bride of Christ, the New Jerusalem.
Kline's last book was written, as he stated himself, as an overview for general readers. It's called *God, Heaven and Har Magedon.* It's still difficult to follow because that is just what you get with Meredith Kline. He coins terms so his language is unique, and biblical theology (as opposed to systematic theology) as a discipline can be confusing to the general reader. It's worth it though. Big picture, with striking insights you only get from Kline's work.
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